Blackhawks goaltender Scott Darling, 25, made his NHL debut as Corey Crawford continues to recover from an upper-body injury. Darling took the long route to the NHL as he went through stints in the Southern Professional Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League, and Central Hockey League along the way. However, he stood tall when finally given the opportunity to play at the highest level, turning aside 32 of 33 shots tonight.

This was also a big night for Patrick Kane, who picked up an assist on Jonathan Toews’ opening goal. For Kane, that was his 500th point in just 523 games:

Milan Michalek tied it up at 7:08 of the second period, but Brent Seabrook responded by scoring what would ultimately be the game-winning goal.

Chicago improved to 5-2-1 this season while Ottawa is now 4-2-1. The two squads will have a rematch on Thursday.

Forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau is expected to return to the ice Saturday after missing Friday to nurse an injury.

The same can’t be said for Marc Methot, Eric Gryba or Milan Michalek – all three are expected to miss Saturday’s practices at the team’s Fan Fest nursing various injuries.

“It’s purely (the organization’s) decision to keep them out,” coach Paul MacLean told the Ottawa Sun. “If it was up to the players they’d all be out there skating.”

Methot, who is nursing a sore back, hasn’t played in any preseason games and was unable to do the skating tests at the start of camp as a result of the injury.

“The most important thing is to be patient and make sure he’s 100% before we put him back on the ice and not try to force something that (makes it) a long process,” said MacLean. “It’s already been a long enough process now. We want to nip in the bud and make sure when he’s back on the ice he’s 100%.”

The Senators don’t resume their preseason schedule until Sept. 30 when they visit the Winnipeg Jets.

With the off-season departure of Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky, the Ottawa Senators top line heading into the 2014-15 season will feature Kyle Turris between Clarke MacArthur and Bobby Ryan.

The team’s best line during the 2013-14 season, the trio now has the pressure of getting it done against other team’s top checking units and shutdown defensive pairings.

With Turris leading the way netting 26 goals last season, the trio scored nearly 32 percent of the Senators goals in 2013-14.

“I think we learned a lot from last year,” Turris told NHL.com this week. “I think the previous two years before that was kind of a step forward, and I think last year was a step back. We really got to evaluate everything and it was a great lesson because we learned a lot, we took a lot out of it.”

MacArthur, who scored a career-high 24 goals and 55 points in 79 games last season while riding shotgun with Turris, signed a new five-year, $23 million contract extension on Thursday and is looking forward to a second season playing alongside Turris.

“I think Turris would click with anyone, if they want to say I’m the guy who’s good with him I’ll take it,” MacArthur told the Sens website. “He does everything well. He’s a centreman with great speed, he’s got a great shot, he sees the ice.

“As far as making things easy out there, we obviously have to keep working at it, there’s things we want to improve for sure, but he’s got a good attitude and he’s a player willing to listen to other people’s ideas.”

MacArthur, who spent three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs before joining the Senators, knows about playing under pressure.

“I think when I was in Toronto I came off of a million dollar contract and ended up taking two years at $6.5 million and that was big money for me at the time and you feel a little bit of the pressure. Just because I got a five-year deal doesn’t mean I have to change a whole lot. I want to play the same game.

“As far as what I need to do on the ice, I want to do similar to last year — obviously we want a better result — but for myself I want to try and bring a similar game every night.”

Behind the MacArthur-Turris-Ryan combo is a line likely to feature Milan Michalek, Mika Zibanejad and newcomer Alex Chiasson. Zibanejad and Chiasson have a combined 42 career NHL goals.

The Michalek-Zibanejad-Chiasson trio along with Colin Greening, David Legwand, Mark Stone, Erik Condra, Zack Smith and Chris Neil will all have to pick up the slack as Ottawa looks to return to the playoffs for the third time in four years.

The Senators finished just five points back of Detroit for the eighth and final playoff spot last season with a 37-31-14 record.

The lack of goal-scoring prowess behind the first line also puts pressure on the Turris combo. Ottawa finished 11th in the NHL in goals for last season.

Ryan, 27, who scored 23 goals and 48 points in 70 games will be expected to have a bigger contribution. His first season in Ottawa was a career-worst for the forward, who averaged over 30 goals a season while with the Anaheim Ducks.

It helps that the New Jersey native is a pending unrestricted free agent and has the added motivation of playing for a contract.

MacArthur admitted he’d be having a conversation with Ryan about re-signing long term in Ottawa.

“He’s a player you want on your team,” said MacArthur. “If I can nudge him towards staying I’m definitely going to try to. He’s definitely a complement to our team.”

Murray doesn’t believe contract talks will begin until next month.

“We’ve talked to Bobby at length through his agents,” he told the Sens website. “I believe it will take until he comes to Ottawa for training camp to continue the discussions. He’s one of the next guys we’re definitely going to try to keep here.”

According to Turris, the team needs to get back to the mindset of two seasons ago, where the injury-plagued Senators surprised many by qualifying for the playoffs.

“We need to bring back that consistency and kind of getting back to our pesky ways that we were before,” Turris said. “There are lots of things that we’ve taken into account that we’re going to work on moving forward. We’ll make those corrections and be back to where we want to be this year.”

It’ll have to be a big season for Turris and Co. or else Ottawa will once again be sitting on the outside looking in when the playoffs begin.

Welcome to Thunderdome! Or, as us in the hockey biz like to call it, July 1.

Throughout today, PHT will bring you up-to-the-minute news covering all the signings and trades that go down across the NHL. And — because we know you don’t wanna go looking all over the place for what’s happened — we’ve created this here handy tracker to keep tabs on all the action.

Enjoy the day…

Tuesday, July 1

New York Islanders sign Harry Zolnierczyk: for one year, $600,000 (link); they also sign Cory Conacher to an identical one-year, $600,000 deal (link)

Detroit Red Wings re-sign D Kyle Quincey for two years, $8.5 million (link)

Shortly after acquiring Jason Spezza via trade, Dallas signed his former Ottawa running mate Ales Hemsky to a three-year, $12 million deal, per TSN.

Acquired from Edmonton at last year’s deadline, Hemsky showed extremely well as a Senator by establishing chemistry on a line with Spezza and Milan Michalek. The Czech winger had 17 points in 20 games in Ottawa and will no doubt be pleased to reunite with Spezza in Dallas, a team that’s shaping up to be a formidable offensive force.

Prior to landing Spezza and Hemsky, the Stars already boasted two of the NHL’s best scorers — Tyler Seguin, who finished fourth with 84 points and Jamie Benn, who finished 10th with 79.